Talk:Esme Song/@comment-5261392-20170419161151
It's no secret that Esme is one of my favorite characters. She's complex, dynamic, multi faceted, morally ambiguous, and has amazing potential to be a groundbreaking character with one of the most unique, heartbreaking backgrounds on the show. Not to mention, she is hilarious, entertaining to watch, and Chelsea plays her to perfection. That being said, I am not a fan of how she is being demonized by the show to prop up other characters and storylines. While Degrassi has really improved their writing and representation of people of color, the presentatin of Esme is seriously flawed. Here are some examples of how she was stereotyped, used, abused, and demonized by not only the fandom, but the writers and other characters on the show. *She was Miles' "bad influence" and was blamed for Miles' drug addiction and downward spiral into darkness. Now, many fans and I realize that the situation wasn't black and white, she didn't force Miles to take those pills, and Miles has been showing signs of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as all other types of impulsive and reckless behaviors due to an untreated mental illness, since his first appearance in Season 13. But the writers still branded Esme as Miles' "bad influence". *Going off of my first point, it is incredibly shady to have Esme being "toxic" and a "bad influence" and somehow use that to prop up Triles and Mola. Tristan is the love of Miles' life and the writers never fail to shove that idea down our throats. Despite the fact that Tristan has verbally and physically abused Miles, slut shamed him to the entire school, and Miles cheated on Tristan while he was in a coma, Hollingsong is deemed as Miles' most problematic and toxic ship. With Lola, it just doesn't sit right with me that she gets to be Miles' hope and source of happiness after Esme broke him down and triggered him. And this is coming from someone who considers Mola an OTP. Two white characters being the saviors and rocks, while the one Asian female on this show is demonized and presented as a bad influence to Miles. *Esme may actually be bi or pan, but instead of her sexual orientation being explored, she was used as one half of queer baiting and was just a footnote in Zoe's coming out story. *The slut shaming. Oh my goooood, this pisses me off. Drew slept with most of the girls on the show, including a 15 year old and his dead brother's ex girlfriend, and he cheated on three of them in the process, but he received endless screentime, storyline fodder, and woship from the fandom, writers, and other characters (they even spelled out "We Love Drew" at the graduation, smh). Meanwhile, Esme has consensual sex with her boyfriend and she's all types of easy, a bad influence, a slut, the reason Zig is going to fail Senior year (despite the fact that she tutored him and helped him pass), and damaged goods. Meanwhile, amongst the people who slutshamed her was Jonah (who called her damaged, despite the fact that he has a dark past of drug abuse and addiction. seriously, who the fuck are you to judge??), Tiny (who slutshamed Esme but wanted sex from his girlfriend... I guess sex is only okay when a guy wants it?), Zig (the resident meninist of Degrassi, so no one is surprised), and Shay (who, if we're being honest, has more of a reason to be upset with LOLA for body shaming her and saying she has no cute pictures of her. I love Lola, but I'm just keeping it real.) All of these factors, as well as the fact that Esme has ''still ''not gotten a storyline to herself and has just been used to make other (white) characters look good in comparison is unsettling. She has so much potential to have an AMAZING plot and we know that Chelsea would kill it. This show has really improved in terms of POC characters getting their own plots and development outside of their relationships with other characters (see Shay, Goldi, Rasha, etc.) - let Esme, one of the FEW Asian characters this show has had and one of the most intriguing characters on this show that same type of development. Please, writers, Esme has so much potential and after fleshing out so many other characters in Next Class, Esme shouldn't be the exception to that rule.